Steal This Album!

Steal This Album!
System of a Down's studio album
Publication (s)	November 26, 2002
Label (s)	American Recordings , Columbia CK 87062
Format (s)	CD, LP
Genre (s)	Alternative metal , nu metal
Title (number)	16
running time	43 min 31 s
occupation	Singing , keyboard , guitar : Serj Tankian Guitar, vocals: Daron Malakian Bass : Shavo Odadjian Drums : John Dolmayan
production	Rick Rubin
chronology Toxicity (2001) Steal This Album! Mezmerize (2005)

Steal This Album! is the third studio album by the American metal band System of a Down after System of a Down and Toxicity . It was released on November 26, 2002.

Cover design

The design is a blank CD on which only the name of the band and the album are apparently handwritten. The capital letters written in thick lines are intended to imitate the use of a CD pen. This is in contrast to the usually decorated covers on commercially sold CDs, on which block letters or other artistic lettering are used. The design of the CD is based on the typical appearance of black copies . Their name also deals with this topic.

History of origin

While recording Toxicity , 33 songs were written, which were recorded on two albums - Toxicity : 14 songs, Steal This Album! : 16 songs - as well as various soundtracks and singles - B-sides were distributed.

System of a Down emphasized that this album should not serve as a scrap recycling, but should only end the started project Toxicity , so that there is room for new songs. The album is named after the 1969 book " Steal This Book " by Abbie Hoffman . From Steal This Album! there are also four rare editions of which each band member has created a cover design.

Track list

1. Chic 'N' Stu - 2:23
2. Innervision - 2:33
3. Bubbles - 1:57
4. Boom! - 2:15
5. Nüguns - 2:31
6. ADD (American Dream Denial) - 3:18
7. Mr. Jack - 4:11
8. IEAIAIO - 3:08
9. 36 - 0:46
10. Pictures - 2:07
11. Highway Song - 3:15
12. Fuck the System - 2:15
13. Ego Brain - 3:23
14. Thetawaves - 2:39
15. Roulette - 3:21
16. Streamline - 3:35

reception

Reviews

The album was positively received by critics. Laut.de awarded the highest rating and described the pieces of music as "mostly [...] brilliant". Plattentests.de described the songs on the album as “clearly second choice”, but also wrote: “The second choice of System of a Down” put “the premium selection of almost every other band in the pocket.” In the end, Plattentests.de awarded 7 out of 10 points. This score, 7 out of 10 points, was also awarded by metal.de, although the "second class" of the songs was also criticized here. Whiskey-soda.de saw a “rougher side” of the band in the album and, in contrast to Plattentests.de and metal.de, “no loss of quality” of the songs in contrast to Toxicity. Whiskey-Soda.de awarded the grade 1− .

The English-language reviews were almost exclusively positive. For example, sputnikmusic.com (4.5 out of 5 points) or Allmusic (4 out of 5 points) rated the album as “System of a Downs very surprisingly triumphant album” ( “most surprisingly triumphant album” ) or as “in some Cases downright beautiful ”( “ […] in some cases, downright beautiful ” ), high scores. The magazines Entertainment Weekly and Spin also rated the album positively. Entertainment Weekly wrote, "Steal This Album 'is a head and tattooed shoulders above its competition in the hard rock genre" ( "Steal This Album' stands head-and-tattooed-shoulders above its competition in the hard-rock genre " ) and gave the grade" B + ", which corresponds to grade 2+ in the German grading system. Spin described the album with the words "Just when you think you've got a foothold, the ground disappears under your feet." And gave 4 out of 5 points. In contrast to the positive opinions are the rather negative opinions of the reviews of the music magazines Blender and Rolling Stone . Blender gave only 2 out of 5 points and justified this with the "pretty moth-eaten" texts. Rolling Stone rated it 3 out of 5, better than Blender magazine .

Chart successes

country	Highest position	Weeks on the charts	source
Germany	4th	4th
Austria	24	12
Switzerland	25th	14th

Sales figures and awards

Country / Region	Award	Sales
Awards for music sales (country / region, Award, Sales)
Australia (ARIA)	gold	35,000
Finland (IFPI)	gold	15,886
United States (RIAA)	platinum	1,000,000
United Kingdom (BPI)	gold	100,000
All in all	3 × gold 1 × platinum	1,150,886

swell

1. ↑ allmusic.com: Steal this album! , last viewed on February 27, 2011
2. ↑ metal1.info: Band info: System Of A Down ( Memento of the original from February 5, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed September 2, 2009 
3. ↑ Sony Music: New Album For System Of A Down ( Memento of the original from September 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. October 23, 2002, accessed September 2, 2009 
4. ↑ Laut.de: Review by Stefan Friedrich, accessed on September 2, 2009
5. ↑ Plattentests.de: Review by Daniel Gerhardt, accessed on September 2, 2009
6. ↑ metal.de: Review by Anonymus, written on January 4, 2003, accessed on September 2, 2009
7. ↑ whiskey-soda.de: Review ( memento of the original from November 11, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. by Taylor, accessed September 2, 2009 
8. ↑ sputnikmusic.com: Review by John A. Hanson, written August 19, 2006, accessed September 2, 2009
9. ↑ Allmusic: Review by Chris True, accessed September 2, 2009
10. ↑ Entertainment Weekly: Music Review by Evan Serpick, posted November 25, 2002, accessed September 2, 2009
11. ^ Spin: Review by Greg Milner, published June 20, 2003, accessed September 2, 2009
12. ↑ Blender.com: Review ( Memento of the original from March 9, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. by Ben Ratliff, accessed September 2, 2009 
13. ↑ Rolling Stone: Review ( April 28, 2007 memento on the Internet Archive ) by Pat Blashill, published November 19, 2002, accessed September 24, 2014
14. ↑ musicline.de: Steal this album in the German album charts ( Memento of the original from May 26, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (German, accessed on November 23, 2010) 
15. ↑ austriancharts.at: Steal this album in the Austrian album charts (German, accessed on November 23, 2010)
16. ↑ hitparade.ch: Steal this album in the Swiss album charts (German, accessed on November 23, 2010)
17. ↑ Award in Australia
18. ↑ Award in Finland
19. ↑ Distinction in the United States
20. ↑ Award in the United Kingdom

Web links

• CD review on laut.de.